October 28, 2015

CFS/ME: PACE trial follow-up study

CFS/ME affects around 250,000 people in the UK and in severe cases results in patients being mostly bedridden and unable to do more than minimal daily tasks.

The PACE trial, published in 2011, suggested that Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) and Graded Exercise Therapy (GET) were moderately effective ways of treating people. A subsequent PACE trial follow-up study, published in The Lancet Psychiatry in January 2015, attempted to explain how and why these therapies work and what the implications were. Now, a follow-up study, also published in The Lancet Psychiatry, has assessed the participants’ health in the long-term, and asks whether their current state of health, two and a half years after entering the trial, has been affected by which treatment they received in the trial.